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This article contributes to the development of methods for analysing research funding systems by exploring the robustness and comparability of emerging approaches to generate funding landscapes useful for policy making. We use a novel data set of manually extracted and coded data on the funding acknowledgements of 7,510 publications representing UK cancer research in the year 2011 and compare these “reference data” with funding data provided by Web of Science (WoS) and MEDLINE/PubMed. Findings show high recall (around 93%) of WoS funding data. By contrast, MEDLINE/PubMed data retrieved less than half of the UK cancer publications acknowledging at least one funder. Conversely, both databases have high precision (+90%): That is, few cases of publications with no acknowledgment to funders are identified as having funding data. Nonetheless, funders acknowledged in UK cancer publications were not correctly listed by MEDLINE/PubMed and WoS in around 75% and 32% of the cases, respectively. Reference data on the UK cancer research funding system are used as a case study to demonstrate the utility of funding data for strategic intelligence applications (e.g., mapping of funding landscape and co‐funding activity, comparison of funders' research portfolios).

Only a few studies have addressed the cost-effectiveness of pharmacogenetics interventions in healthcare. Lack of health economics data on aspects of pharmacogenetics is perceived as one of the barriers hindering its implementation for improving drug safety. Thus, a recent Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) study, entitled 'Pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics: state-of-the-art and potential socio-economic impact in the EU' included an explorative cost-effectiveness review for a pharmacogenetic treatment strategy compared with traditional medical practice. The selected case study examined the cost-effectiveness of thiopurine methyltransferase (TMPT) genotyping prior to thiopurine treatment in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Information for the cost-effectiveness model parameters was collected from literature surveys and interviews with experts from four European countries (Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK). The model has established that TPMT testing in ALL patients has a favorable cost-effectiveness ratio. This conclusion was based on parameters collected for TPMT genotyping costs, estimates for frequency of TMPT deficiency, rates of thiopurine-mediated myelosuppression in TPMT-deficient individuals, and myelosuppression-related hospitalization costs in each of the four countries studied. The mean calculated cost per life-year gained by TPMT genotyping in ALL patients in the four study countries was euro 2100 (or euro 4800 after 3% discount) based on genotyping costs of euro 150 per patient. Cost per life-year gained is expected to further improve following the introduction of the wider use of TMPT genotyping and the availability of lower cost genotyping methods. Our analysis indicates that TPMT genotyping should be seriously considered as an integral part of healthcare prior to the initiation of therapy with thiopurine drugs.

There is a widespread perception that pharmaceutical R&D is facing a productivity crisis characterised by stagnation in the numbers of new drug approvals in the face of increasing R&D costs. This study explores pharmaceutical R&D dynamics by examining the publication activities of all R&D laboratories of the major European and US pharmaceutical firms during the period 1995-2009. The empirical findings present an industry in transformation. In the first place, we observe a decline of the total number of publications by large firms. Second, we show a relative increase of their external collaborations suggesting a tendency to outsource, and a diversification of the disciplinary base, in particular towards computation, health services and more clinical approaches. Also evident is a more pronounced decline in publications by both R&D laboratories located in Europe and by firms with European headquarters. Finally, while publications by Big Pharma in emerging economies sharply increase, they remain extremely low compared with those in developed countries. In summary, the trend in this transformation is one of a gradual decrease in internal research efforts and increasing reliance on external research. These empirical insights support the view that large pharmaceutical firms are increasingly becoming 'network integrators' rather than the prime locus of drug discovery.

This paper examines the use of scientometric overlay mapping as a tool of "strategic intelligence" to aid the governing of emerging technologies. We develop an integrative synthesis of different overlay mapping techniques and associated perspectives on technological emergence across geographical, social, and cognitive spaces. To do so, we longitudinally analyze (with publication and patent data) three case studies of emerging technologies in the medical domain. These are RNA interference (RNAi), human papillomavirus (HPV) testing technologies for cervical cancer, and thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) genetic testing. Given the flexibility (i.e., adaptability to different sources of data) and granularity (i.e., applicability across multiple levels of data aggregation) of overlay mapping techniques, we argue that these techniques can favor the integration and comparison of results from different contexts and cases, thus potentially functioning as a platform for "distributed" strategic intelligence for analysts and decision makers.